Authorities left in dark after toxic mineral exposed at quarry

Regulatory authorities were not informed for over a month after a cancer-causing mineral was exposed at a Co Wicklow quarry earlier this year, documents show.

Almost 3,000 tons of asbestos-containing rock was distributed to sites around north Wicklow and south Dublin before the presence of the hazardous mineral was notified to authorities, according to documents obtained under freedom of information legislation.

The asbestos was contained in more than 30,000 tons of rock exposed after blasting in Ballinclare quarry in April. Wicklow County Council was informed of the presence of the mineral in late May.

The Kilsaran group, which owns the quarry, said the rock was blasted on April 18th but processing of the material did not start for a time afterwards. During a routine quality control inspection, the company’s technical department discovered an unidentified material and quarantined the area pending test results.

“Once test results were identified, Wicklow County Council were notified and the quarry closed,” said a spokesman.

Since then, the quarry has remained closed and extensive testing for the presence of asbestos has been carried out. While most soil samples showed no or only tiny amounts of asbestos, 10 per cent were found to contain more than 1 per cent asbestos by weight. No asbestos fibres were detected in the air.

In June, Wicklow County Council formally issued Kilsaran with a notice under section 55 of the Waste Management Act 1996. This requires the company to deal with the health and environmental risk resulting from the delivery of the hazardous material to nine sites in the county by sending it back to its source in the quarry. The notice requires the work to be completed within 40 days.

The exact details of the sites have been excised from documents provided under freedom of information. However, there are mentions of new cycle paths in Greystones, the driveways and paths around houses, the service track of a driving range in Co Dublin and the forecourt of a new petrol station.

Crushed rock

Kilsaran told the council it had identified 2,739 tons of the blasted and crushed rock which was delivered to about 18 sites in south Dublin and north Wicklow. The remainder of the blasted rock is still in the quarry.

In nine sites, seven of them in Co Wicklow, the material was loose and was not covered with either concrete or asphalt. These sites were covered with heavy plastic and soil as a temporary safety measure.

"This loose, potentially hazardous material poses a risk to public health and the environment," wrote Michael Boland, executive scientist in the council's waste management division in an internal memo dated May 31st.

The blasted asbestos-bearing rock in the quarry is not fit for future use, according to the council, which says it is industrial waste that needs to be licensed by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The thousands of tons of returned asbestos-containing rock will be stored in bags in a pit, and covered with dust, a “geo-textile layer”, 100m of stone material and 50cm of topsoil.

Three weeks after the section 55 notice was issued, remediation work had been completed at just four sites.

Decisions had still to be made about the 10 sites where asbestos-containing material was covered with concrete or asphalt before the discovery was made.

The Kilsaran spokesman said this week the remediation process was over 95 per cent complete and is due to end shortly.

The council’s files show that concerns about the issue were raised by a number of individuals. One Greystones resident living across from a building site where asbestos was discovered wanted to know whether this was a health hazard for the family. Another person, who was building a home using 100 tons of material found to be contaminated, said his family has been “left exposed” for a month and had not been told when the material would be removed.